Mangroves provide important nursery habitat for coral reef fishes, such as grunts, snappers, and others. While this has been shown locally in some studies, a new paper by scientists from NOAA Fisheries and University of Miami RSMAS used REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project data to evaluate mangrove-reef connectivity at the Caribbean regional scale. Their findings, recently published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, showed that the size of nearby mangrove forests directly influences reef fish densities of at least 6 species.This study is a great example of the power and impact that long-term, wide-spread citizen science programs such as the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project can have on addressing important ecological and management questions that would otherwise be near impossible to evaluate. Way to go REEF surveyors! Visit www.REEF.org/db/publications to see this and all of the 50+ scientific publications that have included REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project data.
